Fiji's Sodelpa party is beefing up its campaign by recruiting young volunteers to go house to house and gain voters.

Transcript

Fiji's Sodelpa party is beefing up its campaign by recruiting young volunteers to go house to house and gain voters.

Sodelpa organisers say they need to step up efforts before the polls as they are finding difficulty in getting their message across in the mainstream media.

The party's General Secretary Pio Tabaiwalu told Sally Round they're sick of being branded as old politicians as they are fielding five young candidates and have minimum quotas for youth participation.

PIO TABAIWALU: We really need to push it up to another phase, to another energy level of campaigning and going out house to house. So we really need to get it out to our candidates and our youth volunteers, because it is only a month away.

SALLY ROUND: Now you are also engaging with the youth in trying to get them to spread the message, why's that?

PT: Yeah, because, they are the most widespread really, and they are 48 percent of them. They have the energy and I think they have the enthusiasm to really go out to the house to house meetings and of course invite their peers. What is happening is you know when we have political meetings it is the older generation that come. You know, I think it is traditionally in Fiji like that, is the older folks who come to the political meetings we have. So what we are trying to do is in fact motivate the youths to invite their peers, and after that, from that, then we hold the youth rally, which they are planning for. And I told them that the best strategy to do that is to go to a certain suburb and meet at a particular house, and the youths of that area can come together, and after that then hold the rally. So in that way, they are generating support.

SR: Are you having problems in getting your message across at the moment?

PT: Yeah, at the moment, what is happening is because the media is so controlled by the regime, that we, you know, when we analyse how we are getting into the media, there is only about ten percent coverage for Sodelpa and all the other parties. They are getting 90 percent of the airwaves, 90 of the tv, and 90 percent of the newsprint. And not only the quantity, it is where it is placed. We are, you know, when we get an article, they put it right near the sports page at the back. But when it is the regime's, especially one particular paper, it is always page one and two. And if you do a research, our party leader has appeared only once in the front page. The PM, is always saying, the regime, they are saying the Sodelpa is a team of old politicians. But it consists of very dynamic youth, and that is you know should come out more and more.

SR: And how many are young members of your party, how many have you got as membership, young people?

PT: I cannot tell you a figure, but we have branches all over the place, we have branches in each village, and in each village the minimum is 13 youths. Ok the minimum to form a branch is 50. And it is a requirement that out of that 50, 13 should be youths, it is a requirement under our constitution. So we have about 600 or 700 branches, so times 13, or something like that, that's a rough estimate. But that is the minimum figure.

SR: Your candidates, you're fielding some young people as well?

PT: The problem at the moment with attracting youth candidates is one, the very good ones are in fact in paid employment, you know they are very well qualified, but when we tell them come to politics, it's a very risky games because of the frequency of the military coups they take it as a very risky proposition for them.